Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday, April 13, 2014

At dusk on July 1, 1985, I was sitting among the small crowd of baseball fans at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, waiting for the start of a Phillies-Cubs matchup, when longtime Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt took the field wearing a long curly wig and sunglasses. A roar of laughter rose up from the crowd, in appreciation of Schmidt’s effort to transform the attitude of the fans, who had been battling with Schmidt all season.